DAVY: Generous spirits are a blessing of the season

My favorite Christmas story ends this way: “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”

That spirit of the season (“goodwill for all men”) for believers and nonbelievers alike is celebrated well in coastal North County.

In the last few weeks, as many as 2,000 volunteers did astonishing acts of generosity by organizing and hosting the annual Community Resource Center holiday basket event, Dec. 14-16, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

These people, so generous of heart, delivered toys, bicycles, clothes, blankets, food and more to 1,800 families — the 30th year that volunteers with the Encinitas-based center have spread cheer.

On Sunday, a young Oceanside volunteer, Mari Trial, was working to keep the sizes available on the racks of winter coats — the last day of the actual distribution.

“I enjoy watching the families come through and seeing the joy on their faces when they get stuff that they wouldn’t otherwise get … I love it when the kids get super-excited.”

This good work began three decades ago when organizers handed out 50 modest food baskets.

Now, the social service agency, which serves from Del Mar to south Oceanside, delivers a “shopping experience” to its clients that allows those receiving the help to pick their own gifts.

The families, who have been screened and prequalified by CRC, were told to arrive at an appointed time to “shop” with a list in hand. Those families, many with kids in tow, were greeted by volunteer hosts, given a shopping cart to push (Walmart made the loan of new ones) and sent out to fulfill some Christmas dreams.

Inside, shoppers found lines of bicycles — a portion of the nearly 600 new or refurbished bicycles readied for new riders. Nearby hung racks of gently used coats, and right next to them was Toyland, set with tables displaying all manner of things from Santa’s list.

Two 14-year-old volunteers greeted guests entering the toy area with big smiles and got smiles in return.

Down the line, workers had stacked bales of blankets — enough to supply two blankets for each family this year.

And finally, boxes and boxes of food — 46 tons, including chickens or turkeys for every family.

The notion is for “families to shop like everyone else,” said Suzie Colby, CRC’s director of PR and Development, extending dignity to people on the edge by allowing them to choose their own gifts — “their entire Christmas” — from the racks and tables.

But the real story, I think, is the volunteer effort that makes the event work.

The board of the 22nd Agricultural District, which owns the fairgrounds, does its part by donating the space behind the grandstand to stage the event (someone quipped that they also give electricity for the lights and wished they had given a little heat, too).

Lauren Pause, executive director of CRC, said her agency has only one paid staff member assigned to the event.

CRC, which began in a little cottage in Encinitas, is so much more than just a holiday basket drive. It is the principal social service provider on the North Coast from Solana Beach to the edge of Oceanside.

Like its inland counterpart, Interfaith Community Service in Escondido, it operates shelters, food banks and services to get people stretched by circumstances back on their feet — a “path to self-sufficiency,” as Colby described it.

At one of the stations, retired teacher Christie Gerding of Oceanside worked with her granddaughter, Cassidy.

She summed up her reason for the effort with a familiar refrain: “We have to pay things forward. … We have to know that we are all connected, whether we have some or nothing. And until we take care of the worst of us, we’re all in trouble.”

Gerding has it right.

So did James Zemel of Carlsbad, who greeted guests in fluent Spanish as they approached the boxes of food.

In his fifth year of volunteering, he said he returns “for the joy of helping others and what I receive for helping others.”

Just as Tiny Tim exclaimed in the story’s last line: “God bless us, every one!”